How to Install a French Drain that Actually Works! DIY Project

Wouldn’t limestone turn the water acidic) river rock is probably the best for draining

should we be using something other than duct tape?

Great information

Is it difficult to learn how to pilot the mini-excavator? (Great video!)

if there is such a thing as a French drain that works, why didn't France put some in New Orleans?

How do I protect those pipes if I intend on driving over them with a tractor?

Why you dont catch this water in a cistern? Easy way to get cheap water for the garden.

What is your grade? A slope of 1 inch deep and 100 inches lengthwise?

Corrugated pipe will not provide a smooth flow and the plastic has a life of less than 20 years before they rot and fail completely. Better to spend the extra money and use PVC pipe.

Thanks a lot for your informative video. I have a muddy back garden from the rain and thinking to put the French duct drain and my question is where it will be finally drained please ? Thanks

Once you add corrugated pipe and fabric, you've created a weeping system. Not really a French drain.

Great vid

Awesome job. You may have thought about water tight sealing your joints and connections.

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trenches are best solution

Very helpful, thanks!

Great video, I love the Exevador hypnotized me, like a Dinosaur 😲

as much as an 8 ft level costs nowadays might as well rent the rotary level

Should have did a collaboration with french drain man. NDS stuff sucks. youll have animals chewing at that pipe bc it's all recycled restaurant plastic. A true gutter leaf protector does not splash. Youre getting alot of splash and that splash goes down your foundation. French Drain Man on YT. You can also use a heat gun, heat up that thin wall and pop the cap in. then you have a grooved cap that wont spin or fling off easy.

Is that duct tape I see you using to hold the pipe together ?
If it is, you need to get PVC tape and redo those connections.

Nice job on this project and congratulations on 1 million subscribers. I just became another new one now.
Continued success - although I'd much rather see a 'zeroscape' feature where your 'lawn' is... takes a tiny fraction of the water and is good for the environment.

Lawns are worthless and harm the environment, just plant wild flowers & be done with it!

Please attach the roof drains directly to the ground drain so that you avoid that awful splashing onto your façade as the wood will rot otherwise. There are self-cleaning drain guards for that as well, at least that is how we do it in Sweden to protect our wooden houses.

Great job

Wrong slope and corrugated pipe is low quality for this application. Use rigid pipe for low slope applications.

No Frenchman were hurt in the making of this.

How did you figure 10 tons of gravel for 700’ of trench? I’m obviously doing the math wrong.

Wow, great job , every house should have this system in place when a house is built.

This might be a "how to" but it is not a DIY for me! This takes a professional. I wouldn't have a clue as to what needed to be done.

When you're ready to put the soil back on top, take some photos of the whole run because it'll help find it later if needed. Should you sell the house it will also help the new owners with finding where the run goes.

You spelled installation wrong in your thumbnail.

Doesn’t look like it worked that well, from the relatively small amount of after footage.

That black plastic drainage pipe is poor quality. It will not last.

build a pond...

I live in Australia We don't get that drain grate here 😡

Hello and great video, what is the size of those catch basin best place to get all the products you use

FDM makes a downspout cleanout thats placed inline and looks way cleaner. Its a vented clean out with hand-hole access and an angled leaf blocker.

thanks for the video, I would have simply put the pipe with holes in it down and used a rotary hoe to dig the trench..

It's a common misconception that "French" drains will improve percolation/infiltration. The theory sounds so good, but the fly in the ointment is that the rate of inflow is governed by the infiltration/percolation rate for the soil on top. Slow-draining/percolating soils, particularly those with smaller particle sizes and poor structure drain astonisingly slowly (e.g., 0.02" per hour) meaning that the water will still run off where the drain is. The French drain will drain FREE water (not adhering to soil particles) but cannot "convert" water held under tension to soil particles or slowed by tiny pore spaces, and it sure won't "suck" any water out of finer soils. Better to have a drainage system for capturing surface water and/or grade to drain. Try to get the drain to work on a dry day by sprinkling the surface to mimic the worst case precipitation rate/volume and see how long it takes to see water coming out of the discharge end of the drain and how much, compared to the rate/volume of application.

It all starts with the smart engineer guy's.. not building slightly above ground level.. atleast half a metre...then the land could have been sloped to drain out excess rainfall..to a stream thus leads to the river...

Very nice video and explanation, it's the most helpfull video I have wathcing. Thank very much!

You can make a nice pond with that water

Oh, your not supposed to put that same dirt back in the trench. That is supposed to be hauled off and you are supposed to bring better dirt in to backfill,

That rock is terrible to use in this application, way to small.

Amazing job, I barely understand English because you speak really fast, but it is well explained. I have the same problem at home, my concern is how can I know where is the internet or electricity wires is located? Thanks for sharing

Thank you for the idea about putting two pipes in the trench. Seems obvious in retrospect but this will really help me out.

Do you ever have issues with creatures making nests in your downspout with that type of connection?